f 

lEir 


Christian  Missions 


in  Japan 


~ If 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/christianmissionOOadac 


Christian  Missions 
in  Japan 


BY 

ADACHI  KINNOSUKE 


Reprinted  by  permission  from  the  Century  Magazine 
for  September,  1911 


Board  of  Foreign  Missions  Reformed  Church 
in  America 

25  East  22nd  Street 
New  York  City 
1911 


Copyright,  1911,  by 


The  Century  Company 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  IN  JAPAN 


M ANY  things  have  been  said  of  the 
foreign  missionary  work,  some  of 
them  extravagant,  most  of  them  unkindly, 
a few  witty,  sparkling,  cutting,  and  in  many 
cases  wrong. 

This,  frankly,  is  no  defense  of  the  for- 
eign missions ; it  is  not  even  a Christian 
view  of  the  work.  I am  a Japanese  by  birth 
— a mere  heathen.  It  is,  therefore,  an  im- 
pression of  an  outsider  pure  and  simple,  and 
these  I know  to  be  facts. 

Forty-odd  years  ago,  at  every  gate  to 
both  the  Flower  Capital  of  the  mikado  and 
Yedo,  city  of  the  shogun,  at  many  of  the  en- 
trances to  the  towns  and  villages  of  Nippon, 
there  stood  a large  notice-board.  It  was  of- 
ficial. In  bold,  heavy,  black,  fat  strokes,  so 
that  he  who  ran  on  the  highway  might  read, 
was  the  following : 

KIRISHITAN  JASHUMONNO  GIWA,  KORE- 

MADENOTORI  KATAKU  KINSEINO  KOTO ! 

That  is  to  say : 

“The  evil  sect  Kirishitan  [Christian]  is 
hrrnly  forbidden  as  hitherto!” 


3 


To-day  you  may  see  a few  of  the  same 
old  notice-boards,  and  read  the  same  historic 
inscription,  but  you  must  go  to  the  Tokio 
Museum  to  find  them.  They  are  no  longer 
on  the  streets.  Thirty-five  years  ago  there 
were  eleven  baptized  Protestant  Christians. 
To-day  there  are  seventy  thousand  of  them 
in  Japan;  they  own  600  churches;  in  their 
Sunday-schools  they  teach  100,000  children. 

Is  this  the  fruit  of  the  Christian  missions 
in  Japan?  Certainly.  But  not  the  only  re- 
sult, and  not  the  most  important. 

Fifty  years  ago  there  was  no  such  ex- 
pression as  “religious  freedom’’  in  the  en- 
tire range  of  Nippon  literature.  To-day 
the  phrase  has  been  written  into  the  con- 
stitution of  the  land.  Less  than  fifty  years 
ago,  if  you  wished  to  have  a free  fight  on 
the  spot,  without  loss  of  time,  all  that  you 
had  to  do  was  to  call  a gentleman  a “Yaso’’ 
— that  is  to  say,  “Jesus.”  And  to-day?  Ad- 
miral Uriu,  who  battered  the  fine  Russian 
cruiser  Variag  in  the  harbor  of  Chemulpo, 
is  a Christian ; and  many  other  officers  of 
the  navy  and  army  of  Japan  of  to-day  are 
proud  to  be  called  Yaso.  The  editors  of 
some  of  the  leading  metropolitan  dailies  are 
Christians.  In  1890,  when  the  Imperial 
Diet  was  convened  for  the  first  time  in 
the  history  of  Japan,  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives had  a Christian  for  its  president. 


His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Japan  con- 
tributes regularly  to  the  funds  of  the  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association.  To-day  no 
one  can  irritate  a Japanese  by  calling  him 
Yaso.  These  are  some  of  the  fruits  of  the 
missionary  work  in  Japan.  Not  the  fruit, 
however. 

Away  back  in  tbe  early  seventies  of  the 
last  century, — in  those  days  when  the  new 


VICE-ADMIRAL  URIU 


He  studied  at  the  United  States  Naval  Academy,  married  a Japanese 
who  was  a Ch'istian  and  was  graduated  at  Vassar,  and  during  the 
war  with  Russia  held  high  command  under  Admiral  Togo. 


5 


Nippon  was  being  born, — there  was  a time 
when  the  empire  went  drunk  on  the  heady 
wine  of  Occidental  civilization.  To  know 
something  about  the  wonderful  West,  out 
of  which  came  those  wonderful  black  ships 
of  war  which  had  compelled  the  powerful 
shogunate  to  do  its  sweet  pleasure,  was  the 
order  of  the  day.  Every  daimio,  or  lord  of  a 


Dr.  GUIDO  F.  VERBECK 

Adviser,  Translator,  Preacher.  Educator. 

Decorated  bv  the  Mikado  with  the  Third  Class  of  the  Imperial  Order 
of  the  Rising  Sun,  in  honor  of  his  eminent  services  to  the  New  Japan. 

clan,  established  a school  where  foreign 
languages  and  sciences  were  to  be  taught. 


B 


Our  lord  of  Kumamoto  clan  also  established 
one.  But  how  to  secure  a foreign  instructor 
who  would  teach  the  Western  knowledge  to 
the  children  of  the  samurai  of  Kumamoto, 
there  was  the  rub,  and  more  especially  be- 
cause the  lord  of  the  Kumamoto  clan  was 
particular.  The  clan  of  Kumamoto,  as  all 
the  empire  knew,  was  proud  of  two  things, 
its  historic  castle,  built  by  Kato  Kiyomasa, 
and  the  heroic  tradition  of  its  warriors  as 
brave  as  the  builder  of  the  castle.  It  was 
all  very  well  for  other  effete  clans  to  employ 
foreign  bonzes — that  is  to  say,  missionaries 
■ — as  instructors  to  their  young  men ; but 
not  for  Kumamoto.  The  clan  of  Kuma- 
moto must  have  a soldier  for  its  instructor. 
Xo  priest,  no  mere  man  of  letters  who  was 
little  better  than  a woman ; he  would  hurt 
the  esprit  dc  corps  of  the  clan.  All  these 
emphatic  wishes  of  the  lord  of  Kumamoto 
clan  were,  therefore,  detailed  to  Dr.  G.  F. 
V’erbeck,  who  was  a sort  of  national  ad- 
viser in  such  matters,  and  on  his  recom- 
mendation Captain  L.  L.  Janes  went  to 
teach  the  young  samurai  of  Kumamoto. 

Most  assuredly  the  captain  was  no 
bonze.  But  it  was  also  true  that,  in  com- 
parison with  that  white-flaming  tower  of 
zeal  for  God  that  was  in  his  bosom,  an 
every-day  missionary  would  nave  looked 


7 


like  a penny  candle  flickering  and  fading 
before  a typhoon.  Captain  Janes  was  a 
soldier,  and  an  officer,  of  course.  In  a 
thousand  times  more  emphatic  sense,  how- 
ever, he  was  a soldier  of  the  Cross. 

For  nearly  three  years  Captain  Janes 
said  nothing  of  Christianity  to  his  Kuma- 
moto boys.  Think  of  the  apostlic  ardor 
such  as  that  of  Captain  Janes  looking 
upon  silence  as  golden,  and  for  three  pa- 
tient } ears  ! How  could  he  have  managed 
it?  The  entire  credit,  I am  half  afraid, 
does  not  belong  either  to  the  miraculous 
patience  or  to  the  still  more  wonderful 
wisdom  and  tact  of  Captain  Janes.  For 
one  thing,  he  could  not  speak  Japanese 
well  enough  to  preach  the  gospel  in  it,  and 
his  students  could  not  understand  English. 
But  as  of  yore, 

God  moves  in  a mysterious  way 
His  wonders  to  perform. 

Because  he  could  not  preach  with  words. 
Captain  Janes  lived  out  a Christ-life  in  his 
every-day  actions.  And  I believe  no  ser- 
mon has  ever  been  known  to  be  quite 
eloquent  enough  to  compare  to  the  elo- 
quence of  a simple  Christian  life.  xAnd  the 
magic  eloquence  of  it  touched  the  hearts 
of  the  rugged  children  of  the  Kumamoto 
samurai.  “He  gave  his  whole  strength,” 


s 


writes  one  of  his  old  pupils,  recalling  those 
Kumamoto  days,  “teaching  English  and 
the  sciences.  But  he  was  so  kind  and 
fatherly  in  his  treatment  of  his  pupils  that 
they  came  to  forget  that  he  was  a for- 
eigner.” Let  me  put  it  in  another  way : 
the  three  years’  wordless  work  of  the  cap- 
tain built  a bridge  over  which  his  thoughts 
could  pass  into  the  understanding,  not  only 
mental,  but  sentimental  as  well,  of  his 
boys.  Therefore  at  the  end  of  three  years 
one  day  he  said  to  his  students:  “I  shall 
teach  the  Bible  on  Sunday.  Any  one  who 
wishes  may  come  to  my  house.” 

In  this  short  sentence  the  historian  will 
find  one  of  the  foundation-rocks  of  the 
Christian  Church  in  Japan. 

“We  still  hated  Christianity,”  writes  Mr. 
Kamamori,  one  of  Captain  Janes’s  pupils, 
and  who  later  became  famous  as  the  Paul 
of  the  Japanese  missions  because  of  the  per- 
secution he  sufifered  for  his  faith  and  of  the 
zeal  with  which  he  devoted  his  life  to  the 
work  of  Christ,  “as  though  it  were  a snake, 
and  did  not  like  even  to  see  a Bible ; but  we 
so  respected  him  that  we  concluded  to  go  to 
the  meeting.  One  of  us  went  to  the  teacher 
of  Chinese  [a  teacher  of  Chinese  in  those 
days  was  also  a preceptor  in  the  doctrine 
and  teachings  of  Confucius,  for  the  Jap- 
anese boys  all  studied  classic  Chinese  with 

!) 


the  sacred  books  of  Confucius  as  their  read- 
ers] and  asked  his  consent.  He  replied  that 


From  a lithograph  lent  by  Dr.  If'' . E.  Griffis. 

WAKASA— THE  FIRST  PROTESTANT 
CHRISTIAN  IN  JAPAN 

He  was  a pupil  of  Dr.  G.  F.  Vereeck. 

we  might  go  to  learn  about  Christianity,  not 
to  believe  it,  but  to  study  its  strong  and 


10 


weak  points  in  order  to  oppose  it.  And  so 
of  the  few  who  went  some  went  simply 
out  of  curiosity,  others  for  amusement, 
others  that  they  might  oppose,  none  with 
the  desire  to  accept  it.  During  his  prayer, 
which  seemed  tedious  to  us,  we  sometimes 
opened  our  eyes  and  looked  upon  his  face, 
with  its  closed  and  tearful  eyes,  and  then 
we  laughed,  saying,  ‘Even  Americans 
weep !’  ” 

For  another  year,  patiently,  always 
backed  by  his  Christian  life,  a thing  which 
was  both  new  and  wonderful  to  the  Ku- 
mamoto boys.  Captain  Janes  taught  them 
the  Bible.  He  never  asked  the  3'oung  men 
to  become  Christians.  Two  of  the  boys 
tried  to  impose  upon  his  judgment;  they 
went  to  him  one  day  and  said,  “We  wish 
to  become  preachers  of  the  gospel.’’  He 
told  them  bluntly  that  they  were  not  worthy 
to  be  anything  of  the  kind — a rather  strik- 
ing contrast  with  certain  other  missionaries 
and  their  methods.  The  sharp,  unexpected 
contrast  impressed  the  young  men.  In  1875 
— that  is  to  say,  at  the  end  of  about  one 
year’s  Bible-teaching — his  work  began  to 
tell.  It  divided  the  Kumamoto  school  into 
two  camps,  one  eager  for  the  light  that  was 
in  Christ  and  his  life,  and  the  other  which 
tried  to  crush  the  pro-Christian  elements  by 
reviving  the  study  of  the  sacred  texts  of 


Confucius.  The  teacher  of  Chinese  was  ac- 
tive in  the  work.  Every  Sunday  morning 
he  expounded  the  teachings  of  the  great 
sage  of  China.  For  a time  every  Sabbath 
the  students  went  to  the  teacher  in  Chinese 
in  the  morning  and  in  the  afternoon  to  Cap- 
tain Janes.  Then  Captain  Janes  added 
preaching  to  his  study  of  the  Bible.  “His 
sermons  were  long,”  writes  one  who  at- 
tended,— “sometimes  three  hours  long, — 
but  as  we  had  become  interested  in  Chris- 
tianity, they  were  never  tiresome  to  us.” 

Soon  after,  these  Kumamoto  boys,  who 
had  never  in  all  their  lives  even  so  much 
as  heard  of  the  word  “revival,”  had  the 
visitation  of  the  Spirit  that  was  Pentecostal. 
"We  wondered  why  our  spirits  burned  like 
a fire  and  why  we  preached  the  gospel  like 
mad  men.  One  said,  ‘May  not  this  be  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  mentioned  in  the 
Bible?’” 

And  the  classic  city  of  Kumamoto  was 
treated  to  the  greatest  scandal  in  all  its 
ancient  life.  “What,”  said  the  people  in 
utter  consternation,  “are  our  own  children 
— the  children  of  samurai — turning  into 
' ]"aso  bocu  [that  is  to  say,  Christian 
priests]  ?”  “Can  such  things  be  borne  with 
patience  and  in  silence  ? And  how  are  we 
to  apologize  to  the  ghosts  of  our  ances- 
tors?” The  widowed  mother  of  one  of  the 

1 -2 


boys  tried  to  commit  suicide  to  apologize 
to  the  spirit  of  her  departed  husband  be- 
cause she  had  failed  to  rear  the  son  in  the 
virile  and  noble  path  of  the  samurai.  A 
father  told  his  son,  in  a calm  and  very  sol- 
emn manner,  to  go  out  to  the  porch  lead- 
ing down  to  the  garden. 

“My  son,”  said  the  father,  “since  you  do 
not  renounce  the  evil  faith,  I shall  do  you 
the  honor,  which  you  scarcely  merit,  of  put- 
ting an  end  to  your  life  with  my  own  sword. 
That  is  the  least  apology  which  you  and  I 
can  make  to  the  memory  of  our  august  an- 
cestors.” 

“If  it  be  for  the  sake  of  the  Way,”  the 
son  made  answer,  “let  it  be  so.  Father 
above.” 

Seating  himself  on  the  edge  of  the  porch, 
polished  like  a mirror  and  without  a railing, 
the  son  stretched  forth  his  neck  to  receive 
the  blow  from  the  father’s  blade.  The 
father  looked  at  the  son  fixedly  for  a mo- 
ment. From  the  first  he  had  no  idea  of 
murdering  the  son ; he  wished  to  test  the 
extent  of  fanaticism  of  his  boy,  as  he  con- 
sidered it. 

“Kono  bakayaro !”  cried  the  father.  That 
is  to  say,  “You  big  fool  you !”  I am  sure 
the  old  gentleman  would  have  put  in  a 
choice  touch  of  profanity,  if  only  the  Jap- 


13 


anese  language  had  had  a “cuss”  word;  but 
of  course  it  had  not. 

So  saying,  he  kicked  the  son  off  the  porch 
to  the  garden  flag  and  left  him  in  disgust. 
Persecution  raged,  and  had  precisely  the 
same  effect  as  in  the  cradle  days  of  the 
Christian  Church. 

It  was  the  last  Sunday  in  the  first  m.onth 
of  the  year  of  grace  1876,  and  the  spring- 
like Kyushu  weather  was  all  a-smile.  The 
Christian  students  of  the  Kumamoto 
school  went  out  to  a hill  to  the  southwest 
of  the  castle  city  called  Hana-oka  yama,  or 
the  Hill-in-bloom.  Seating  themselves  in  a 
circle  on  the  crest  of  the  hill,  they  banded 
themselves  under  solemn  oaths.  Let  other 
young  men  chase  the  will-o’-the-wisp  of 
worldly  wealth  and  honors,  let  others  aspire 
to  the  noble  work  of  the  defense  of  the 
Home  Land  of  the  Sun,  of  carrying  for- 
ward the  torch  of  civilization,  but  for  the 
Kumamoto  boys,  however,  none  of  these 
things.  There  was  one  thing  to  which  they 
would  devote  their  entire  lives — the  spirit- 
ual rebirth  of  the  empire  of  Nippon  ; nothing 
less. 

This,  then,  is  the  story  of  the  famous 
Kumamoto  Band,  which  helped  to  lay  the 
foundation  of  Christian  work  in  Japan. 

It  was  in  the  city  of  Kioto,  and  the  time 
was  the  summer  of  1875.  Two  men  sat 


14 


talking  in  a humble  cottage  that  might  have 
commanded  the  monthly  rental  of  ten  dol- 
lars at  the  most.  It  was  specially  modest 
for  the  two  gentlemen  who  sat  and  talked 
therein,  for  one  of  them  was  Mr.  (later  \^is- 
count)  Tanaka,  who  was  then  the  active 
head  of  the  Department  of  Education  of  the 
newly  formed  Imperial  government  and  the 
other  was  Dr.  Neesima. 

“I  have  come,”  Mr.  Tanaka  was  say- 
ing, “to  press  a strong  claim  of  our  coun- 
try upon  you.  You  know  as  well  as  I 
through  what  a critical  hour  our  country 
is  passing  at  present.  It  is  the  one  season 
in  a thousand  autumns.  If  ever  Nippon 
needed  her  sons  to  come  to  her  rescue,  now 
is  the  time.  I need  not  ‘preach  to  the 
Buddha;’  you  know  all  this.  You  know  the 
West  and  Western  civilization  and  its  insti- 
tutions ; your  knowledge  of  them  would  be 
invaluable  to  the  government.  The  country 
has  sore  need  of  you.” 

“This  is  indeed  an  honor  tor  which  I 
am  utterly  unworthy,”  Mr.  Neesima  made 
answer,  “and  believe  me,  I have  no  words  to 
express  my  appreciation  for  your  kindly 
suggestion  ; but — ” 

“Ah,”  said  the  head  of  the  Department 
of  Education,  “I  have  been  afraid  of  that 
‘but’  of  yours.  I have  been  afraid  that  you 
might  say  it.” 


IB 


"Yes,  i regret  to  say — " 

“Wait,”  interrupted  the  other.  "Whether 
}ou  decline  or  whether  you  accept,  you 
should  not  act  on  so  weighty  a matter  as 
this  so  c|uickly.  Would  it  not  be  well  for 
you  to  think  the  matter  over  thoroughly, 
look  upon  the  situation  from  all  possible 
angles?  If  you  like,  discuss  the  matter  with 
me.  Many  things  can  be  said  both  for  and 
against  your  accepting  such  a governmental 
position  as  I have  suggested.” 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  the  two  friends 
sat  down  to  discuss  the  cjuestion,  the  offi- 
cial ever  urging  Mr.  Neesima  to  take  up 
an  important  work  for  the  state.  He  was 
one  of  the  closest  friends  of  Dr.  Neesima, 
and  the  way  they  first  met  was  at  once 
singular  and  dramatic. 

It  was  at  Washington,  District  of  Colum- 
bia, and  Mr.  Tanaka  was  then  wdth  the  fa- 
mous Iwakura  Embassy,  in  the  year  1872, 
perhaps  the  most  significant  year  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  new  Nippon  since  the  restoration 
of  the  actual  sovereignty  to  the  emperor.  It 
was  the  second  and  by  far  the  most  im- 
portant embassy  sent  abroad  by  the  newly 
formed  imperial  regime.  Okubo  and  Kido 
were  the  leading  spirits  of  it,  tlie  two  great 
and  magic  names  to  conjure  with  in  those 
days.  Ito  (the  late  Prince  Ito)  was  also 
one  of  the  members  of  the  commission.  The 

ifi 


embassy  was  “first  to  study  the  institutions 
of  the  civilized  nations,  adopt  those  most 
suited  to  Japan,  and  gradually  reform  our 
government  and  manners,  so  as  to  attain  the 
status  equal  to  that  of  the  most  civilized  na- 
tions.” There  was  no  lack  of  brains  among 
the  men  of  the  embassy.  One  thing  was 
missing,  however,  the  gift  of  tongue.  The 
embassy  needed  an  interpreter,  and  needed 
him  badly.  In  this  sore  hour  of  need,  they 
were  told  that  there  was  a school  in  a town 
called  Andover,  in  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  in  it  was  a Japanese  student. 
He  was  reported  to  be  studying  the  “sci- 
ence of  God.”  It  was  plain  that  he  could 
handle  this  trying  invention  of  the  darker 
power  called  the  English  language. 

It  did  not  take  those  wise  gentlemen  from 
Japan  many  minutes  to  decide  on  their 
course  of  action.  At  once  they  summoned 
the  theological  student  with  all  the  authority 
of  the  Imperial  government,  with  which 
they  were  vested.  He  did  not  answer  post- 
haste and  in  person,  as  the  gentlemen  of  the 
commission  confidently  expected.  Instead, 
there  came  a letter.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  documents  they  had  ever  read, 
and  they  had  seen  all  sorts  of  things  in  their 
day.  For  audacity  and  frankness  it  sur- 
passed a dun  for  a ten-year-old  debt.  For 
the  dictatorial  tone  of  it,  the  writer,  a hum- 


17 


ble  student,  even  if  he  were  presumptuous 
enough  to  be  studying  the  “science  of  God,” 
might  have  been  the  Czar  of  all  the  Russias. 
And  he  explained  in  the  said  remarkable 
letter  that  he  was  an  outlaw,  according  to 
the  laws  of  Japan  in  the  days  when  he  had 
left  it. 

The  outlaw  had  “the  nerve”  to  dictate 
terms  to  the  imperial  embassy ! 

He  was  willing,  he  said,  to  serve  the  em- 
bassy as  an  interpreter,  but,  in  the  first  place, 
the  imperial  commission  must  recognize  him 
as  an  honorable  and  upright  citizen  of  Nip- 
pon. He  had  not  committed  any  other 
crime  than  to  run  away  from  the  country 
with  the  sole  desire  of  studying  the  insti- 
tutions of  America.  (That  act  was  punish- 
able by  death,  according  to  the  laws  of 
the  shogun’s  government.)  The  imperial 
commissioners  must  greet  him  as  an  equal, 
and  must  not  expect  him  to  fall  upon  his 
forhead,  as  was  the  usage  at  the  court  of 
Japan.  That  was  not  all : the  embassador 
must  shake  hands  with  the  writer  after  the 
most  approved  American  fashion ! There 
were  many  more  demands  of  this  sort. 

What  could  the  embassy  do  ? It  ac- 
cepted all  the  demands  unconditionally,  and 
Mr.  Neesima  joined  the  Iwakura  Embassy. 
It  was  there  that  he  came  to  know  Viscount 
Tanaka;  with  him  he  traveled  all  through 


18 


Europe  and  America  ; the  report  on  the  edu- 
cational work  of  Europe  and  America  pre- 
sented to  the  throne  by  the  embassy  on  its 
return  was  based  on  the  joint  investigations 
of  the  two  men. 

Thus  the  two  friends  of  former  days  sat 
in  the  humble  Kioto  cottage  of  Dr.  Nees- 
ima. 

Did  Neesima  wish  to  propagate  the 
Christian  faith  among  the  Japanese?  Would 
his  high  standing  among  the  officers  of  the 
government  hurt  such  a work?  Was  there, 
could  there  be,  any  more  effective  method 
than  to  become  a great  national  factor  him- 
self, and  then  bring  about  the  spiritual  sal- 
vation of  Japan,  and  show  to  all  the  people 
that  a Christian  can  at  one  and  the  same 
time  be  a patriot  as  well?  Viscount  Tan- 
aka sat  with  Neesima  and  talked  for  three 
days  and  two  nights. 

To  all  the  arguments  of  his  friend.  Dr. 
Neesima  had  nothing  more  to  say  than  this : 
“I  have  only  one  answer ; my  life  is  not 
my  own.  It  belongs  to  Jesus  Christ.  Many 
years  ago  I solemnly  swore  to  devote  my 
entire  time  and  effort  to  his  cause,  i can- 
not take  back  my  words  and  my  heart.  I 
cannot  do  it.” 

As  twilight  was  purpling  on  the  historic 
hills  of  Kioto,  fragrant  with  the  memory  of 
a thousand  years  of  culture.  Viscount  Tan- 


19 


aka  rose.  He  had  reached  the  end  of  his 
patience.  He  was  a simple-hearted  man. 
He  was  a patriot ; he  could  not  understand 
the  language  of  the  man  of  religion.  How 
could  he?  Without  the  slightest  hesitation, 
he  would  have  sacrificed  all  the  Buddhas  in 
the  world  and  his  life  as  well  if  they  could 
but  add  even  a trifle  to  the  prestige  and 
power  of  the  state.  He  was  disgusted  with 
the  attitude  of  Neesima.  He  was  “mad,” 
clean  mad.” 

“Well,  Neesima,”  he  said,  “I’m  going. 
1 am  sorry.  You  are  indeed  the  slave  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Good-by.” 

And  years  ago,  when  I was  a schoolboy 
in  Tokio,  I heard  Professor  J.  D.  Davis 
say,  telling  this  story,  that  it  was  “the 
proudest  title  ever  given  to  man.” 

The  cottage  in  which  the  two  men  talked 
became  the  foundation  of  the  Doshisha 
University  of  to-day,  away  and  beyond  the 
greatest  Christian  university  in  the  Far 
East. 

And  Dr.  Neesima  lived  a Christian  life. 
It  stamped  the  age  in  which  he  lived ; it  col- 
ored the  history  of  his  country. 

Tokutomi  lichiro,  the  editor  and  foun- 
der of  the  Kokumin,  one  of  the  leading 
metropolitan  dailies  in  Tokio  to-day,  is  one 
of  the  Doshisha  boys  who  has  always  car- 


20 


ried  the  moral  crest  of  the  Neesima  clan. 
At  the  death  of  Neesima  he  wrote ; 

“Individually,  we  have  lost  him  to  whom 
we  looked,  as  to  a father  and  teacher,  for 
strength  and  light  and  love.  ...  As  a 
society  we  have  lost  the  leader  of  the  cause 
of  moral  reformation  in  Japan.  . . . An 

elaborate  eulogy,  a magnificent  funeral,  a 
splendid  monument — these  would  not  please 
him.  Far  better  is  it  for  us  to  do  our  daily 
duty,  to  help  forward  little  by  little,  with 
our  whole  heart  and  life,  the  moral  regener- 
ation of  society,  that  our  land  may  be  the 
home  of  men  and  women  loving  liberty, 
truth,  charity,  and  God.” 

I do  not  know  whether  the  name  of 
Tokutomi  lichiro  is  on  the  memPership  list 
of  a Christian  Church,  and  it  matters 
little.  I do  not  know  whether  Tokutomi 
understood  the  Christian  creed  as  Mr.  Nees- 
ima did ; this  also  matters  not  so  much. 
For  it  is  true  that  many  of  the  people  whose 
lives  have  been  modified  by  the  life  of  Nees- 
ima do  not  even  know  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Congregational  and  the  Unitarian 
churches. 

What  I do  know  is  that  Onchi  Seiran 
was  in  no  way  connected  with  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  At  the  time  of  Mr.  Neesima’s 
death  he  was  one  of  the  shining  lights  of 
the  Buddhistic  sect  called  Shinshu.  in  the 


21 


city  of  Tokyo.  To  the  students  and  the 
family  of  Mr.  Neesima  he  wrote: 

“Having  been  informed  in  the  newspaper 
of  the  death  of  Mr.  Neesima,  president  of 
your  school,  I am  full  of  heartfelt  grief. 
Since  I am  a believer  in  the  faith  of  Bud- 
dhism, I stood  opposed  to  him  . . . but 

in  regard  to  his  stirring  the  religious  heart 
of  our  people  with  his  zeal  I have  no  doubt. 
I was  especially  impressed  with  this  when 
I once  called  on  him  ...  it  seemed 
to  me  at  that  time  that  if  I was  not  a be- 
liever in  Buddhism  I should  have  become 
his  friend  and  accepted  Christianity.  All 
who  are  the  ministers  of  any  religion  must 
become  as  he  was.” 

Inspiring  the  imagination  of  the  new 
Nippon  with  the  charm  and  nobility  of  the 
character  of  Jesus — that  certainly  was  the 
greatest  achievement  of  Mr.  Neesima.  He 
made  his  countrymen  fall  in  love  with  the 
life  of  Jesus  as  Neesima  himself  lived  it 
out  in  the  Kioto  of  the  seventies. 

Neesima  and  his  fellow  workers,  nota- 
bly Professor  J.  D.  Davis,  upon  whom 
Mr.  Neesima  was  wont  to  lean  as  upon  the 
very  staff  of  life,  gave  Japan  a new  national 
ideal.  No  achievements  of  man  can  be 
greater,  more  ambitious  than  this.  In  this 
the  missionaries  succeeded.  Here,  then,  is 

22 


the  great  fruit  of  the  Christian  missions  in 
Japan. 

When  our  foreign  friends  came  to  us  and 
told  us  to  open  up  the  country  for  interna- 
tional intercourse  of  all  sorts,  the  elders  of 
the  shogunate  did  not  like  it.  When  Com- 
modore Perry  told  us  to  open  up  our  coun- 
try whether  we  wished  to  or  no,  some  of  our 
forefathers  lost  their  temper.  We  have 
changed  our  mind  a good  deal  on  that 
point.  We  look  back  upon  the  day  when 
the  black  ships  of  the  American  navy  got 
on  the  nerves  of  our  old  forefathers  so 
dreadfully  as  the  day  of  glorious  fortune. 
And  the  thing  which  made  us  change  our 
mind  was  the  life  lived  among  us  by  the 
gentlemen  who  came  to  us  in  the  name  of 
Jesus,  their  Master. 

And  for  this  reason : many  of  the  mis- 
sionaries who  came  to  Japan  in  those  early 
days  were  scholars  long  before  they  were 
missionaries,  and  they  were  MEN  (and  all 
the  capitals  in  the  language  can  not  possibly 
do  them  justice)  long  before  they  were 
scholars. 

Take  Dr.  Verbeck,  Dr.  Hepburn,  Bishop 
Williams,  Professor  J.  D.  Davis,  Dr.  S.  R. 
Brown  of  Yokohoma,  Bishop  Harris  and 
the  Rev.  J.  H.  De  Forest  of  Sendai,  Pro- 
fessor Clark  of  Supporo  Agricultural  Col- 


23 


lege,  Professor  William  Elliot  Griffis  of 
Fukui  Gakko  and  the  author  of  the  Mi- 
kado’s Empire,  and  Captain  Janes  of  Ku- 
mamoto Ei-gakko. 


Dr.  JAMES  C.  HEPBURN 

Went  to  Asia.  1841.  In  Japan.  1859-1892.  Physician,  translator, 
author,  educator.  Decorated  by  the  Mikado  with  the  Third  Class 
of  the  Imperial  Order  of  the  Rising  Sun,  in  recognition  of  his 
great  services. 

Perhaps  this  is  not  a long  list.  It  should 
not  be.  Great  men  never  did  grow  like 
weeds  anywhere  at  any  time.  The  wonder 
is  that  so  many  of  the  really  great  of  earth 

j I 


should  have  found  their  way  into  the  then 
almost  unknown  land  of  Nippon. 

And  it  was  the  Christlike  life  of  these 
men,  not  their  theology,  which  told  so  stu- 
pendously for  the  cause  of  the  Christian 
missions  in  Japan. 

On  the  fifth  of  October,  1909,  in  the 
city  of  Tokyo,  a number  of  Christians,  and 
a number  of  those  who  were  not,  gathered 
to  celebrate  the  “Semi-Centennial  of  Prot- 
estant Christianity  in  Japan."  Count  Oku- 
ma  was  one  of  the  many  non-Christians 
present.  As  usual,  what  he  said  had  a na- 
tional and  world- wide  significance  : 

“I  came  in  contact  with  and  received 
great  impulses  from  some  of  the  mission- 
aries of  that  early  period.  Particularly 
from  Dr.  Verbeck.  He  was  my  teacher  in 
English  and  history  and  the  Bible.  I can 
never  forget  the  great  and  virtuous  influ- 
ence of  the  man.  At  that  time  Dr.  Verbeck 
could  do  but  little  direct  evangelical  work, 
but  all  his  work  was  Christian.  In  every- 
thing he  did  his  Christlike  spirit  was  re- 
vealed. . . . Only  by  the  coining  of  the 

W est  in  its  missionary  representatives  and 
by  the  spread  of  the  gospel  did  the  nation 
enter  upon  world-wide  thoughts  and  world- 
wide work.” 

Here,  then,  is  Count  Okuma’s  answer  to 
the  question.  What  is  the  greatest  fruit  of 


25 


the  Christian  missionary  work  in  Japan? 
Count  Okuma  is  not  a professing  Christian 
or  a member  of  a Christian  Church.  There 
are  others  like  him.  And  the  life  and  work 


COUNT  OKUMA 

Ex-Premier  of  Japan,  founder  and  President  of  the 
Waseda  University. 

of  just  such  men  as  Count  Okuma  have  told 
on  the  life  of  the  nation  in  a much  more 


26 


potent  fashion  than  figures  and  adjectives 
know  how  to  show. 

The  Kokiimin,  the  prominent  Tokyo 
daily  to  which  I have  referred  before,  de- 
voted almost  two  columns  and  a half  to  the 
editorial  comment  on  the  Semi-Centennial 
celebration  of  the  misionary  work  in  Japan 
in  its  issue  of  October  5,  1909.  It  said: 

“In  this  world  there  is  nothing  that  is  as 
big  as  the  power  of  character.  Especially 
is  it  so  in  religion.  The  propaganda  of  the 
Jesuits  of  the  Genki  and  Tensho  Periods 
(1570-91)  has  not  left  even  a shadow  on 
the  Japan  of  to-day.  But  the  life  influences 
of  the  one  great,  brilliant  star  of  the  move- 
ment, Francis  Xavier,  is  still  seen  here  and 
there  like  a mountain  rill  sparkling  from 
under  the  heaps  of  dead  leaves.  I myself 
know  [the  editorial  was  evidently  written 
by  Mr.  Tokutomi  himself]  that  the  influ- 
ences of  such  men  as  Brown  of  Yokohoma 
and  Janes  of  Kumamoto  in  the  education  of 
our  people  . . . was  by  no  means  light.” 
Some  missionaries  can  not  understand 
why  the  Christian  speculative  philosophy 
and  systematic  theology  are  not  as  popular 
among  the  Japanese  as  the  “stove-pipe  hats” 
of  the  year-before-the-last  season,  which  are 
the  chief  features  of  all  the  social  functions 
in  Japan  of  the  transition.  Some  people 
think  this  is  because  the  Japanese  do  not 


27 


have  a speculative  turn  of  mind.  They  are 
wrong  in  that.  We  do  not  admire  the  pa- 
tient work  of  the  schoolmen  of  the  Dark 
Ages  who  tried  to  figure  out  how  many 
angels  could  stand  on  the  point  of  a needle. 
Our  reason  for  this  is  entirely  different, 
however,  from  that  of  a Wall  Street  man. 
We  are  not  too  busy,  but  we  find  the  Occi- 
dental speculative  philosophy  too  tame  and 
colorless.  Compared  to  the  depth  of  the 
Hindu  philosophy,  it  looks  like  a “teapot 
tempest.”  Compared  with  the  Hanayana 
Sutras,  the  transcendental  idealism  of 
Bishop  Berkeley  sounds  like  a lot  of  nurs- 
ery rhyme.  That  is  the  real  reason  why 
the  Japanese  do  not  rave  over  the  profund- 
ity of  Christian  thought. 

Also  there  are  people  who  say  that  the 
Japanese  nature  is  essentially  non-religious. 
That  our  attitude  toward  all  the  gods  and 
all  things  religious  is  “politeness  toward 
possibilities.”  Anybody  can  see  that  that  is 
wrong, — anybody  who  has  read  the  story  of 
the  Christian  persecution  in  Japan  and 
heard  of  the  men  and  women  who  marked 
the  blood-trail  and  charred  trail  (for  there 
were  many  native  converts  who  preferred 
to  be  burned  at  the  stake  rather  than  re- 
nounce their  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  their 
Savior)  which  led  to  the  horrible  struggle 
of  Shimabara  and  which  made  Pappenberg 


28 


Rock  in  Nagasaki  harbor  forever  famous 
in  history,  for  it  is  the  place  from  which 
thousands  of  the  native  converts  were 
thrown  into  the  sea.  Oh,  yes,  the  Japanese 
nature  is  highly  religious.  Both  in  the 
number  of  shrines  and  of  gods,  we  beat 
the  Athenians  upon  whom  we  have  St. 
Paul’s  pronouncement.  Christian  mission- 
ary work  did  not  deepen  the  religious  na- 
ture of  the  people,  but  it  gave  a new  star 
to  which  it  might  aspire — the  life  and  char- 
acter of  Jesus. 


29 


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